The Arabian Nights
by woshigusta
Summary: A modern version of the classic tales, a twisted romance and a frame story of adventures.
1. Chapter 1

**_Characters_**

**_Sarah Anne Zhang- American-Chinese pediatrician, daughter of Zhang Fa, sister of Donna Zhang_**

**_Donna Zhang- Younger grad-student sister of Sarah Zhang_**

**_Zhang Fa- Chinese CFO of Riers Enterprises, 2nd in command to CEO, father of Donna and Sarah Zhang_**

**_Shane Andreas Riers- American CEO of Riers Enterprises_**

**_Spencer Riers- Brother of Shane_**

**_Shane Thomas Riers- Deceased father of Andrew and Spencer Riers_**

**_The Arabian Nights_**

**_A/N: Disclaimer- My author's notes tend to be crazy long and it's basically non story-related banter that is a completely different mood and tone from the story._**

**_Probably everyone's going to skip it but I'm going to include it anyway, just in case some of you do got time fo' dat and wanna read._**

**_If you don't want to read, no problem my friend. Skip now._**

**_So funny story, I wrote a Death Note fanfiction under a different pen name and it was literally so bad that I had to take it down. I was writing it at like 3 am with no proofreading and no plot, and it was literally so horrible it was funny. Hopefully this is a lot better. If it's horrible too then I'll take it down, no worries. I got the idea from my english class when we were reading Sindbad's 7th voyage in One Thousand and One Arabian Nights and our teacher explained to us the story of Shahrazad and Shahryar and I was like that's a better love story than Twilight and I wanna make a modern version of it. So that's what this is. A modern version of One Thousand and One Arabian Nights._**

The realization washes over me as he gets out of bed and retrieves a gun from the bedside table.

I freeze. The moment I had feared for the past 6 months had finally come, and my broken heart masks my fear.

"Why?" I ask weakly and wrap my white shawl around me.

Andreas cocks the gun, and points it at me, and a tear streams down his face and his brown eyes turn to the floor.

"Andreas, tell me why-"

"Because I love you, I love you more than the stars, and a thousand times more than I ever loved Tanya." His voice cracks.

He wipes his tears and readjusts his aim, setting his eyes on mine.

"I loved Tanya so much, and her cheating was the worst pain I ever felt. Imagine what kind of damage you could do."

"Or maybe I won't cheat."

"All women are the same." He snaps.

I move to the edge of his side of the bed and sit quietly as he continues.

"I've let this go on far too long. I've gotten attached. Put myself in this situation. I should've ended it on the first night."

"Why didn't you?" I ask.

As a little girl, I always thought my prince was going to sweep me off my feet, cherish and love me. I thought he would be rich and handsome, and love me more than the world. And I was right.

But I never imagined he'd point a gun at me. I never imagined my prince as a murderer. But he was.

7 months earlier

It was the morning of December 27. I looked out the window of my cab. I had grown up in New York City and was used to its busy, bustling streets. The holiday craze was just dying down, and the snow on the ground was

trampled and dirty.

I had been in a hurry that morning because my dad's voice sounded urgent and distressed when he called and asked me to come down to his office, and I hadn't gotten ready.

I'd thrown on some jeans, heeled boots, and a sweater, and my long black hair was curly from the day before.

The taxi pulled up to a huge, modern-looking skyscraper with a big, glowing green sign on it that said, "Riers Enterprises"

I paid the the driver and pulled my black wool coat around me tighter as I stepped out. The warmth was a relief to me as I pushed through the revolving doors into the building. The lobby was familiar to me.

My father had worked there nearly all my life, and the smell of artillery and the grandfather clock by the grand staircase

My shoes made a click clack sound on the polished marble floor as I made my way to the front desk and greeted the receptionist who I had never seen before, a young blonde man whose name tag read, "Steve."

"Hi. I'm here to see Fa Zhang. Can you please tell him I'm on my way up?"

"Excuse me, ma'am, do you have an appointment?"

"Um, no."

Steve looked curiously at me, and opened his mouth to oppose me, when I saw a familiar blonde woman of about 50 standing behind him smile at me.

"It's okay, Steve," she said, "Sarah is the CFO's daughter. Longtime friend of the staff."

I smiled. "Hey, Lisa."

Lisa nodded at Steve. "Steve's new, doesn't really know who the VIPs are yet."

Linda comes out from behind the desk and hugs me. "How are things here? I heard about Mr. Shane. That's so sad." I say.

Linda looks at her feet sadly. "Yea, the poor guy. I always knew that diet of his was gonna give him a heart attack. We're gonna miss him."

"Who's in charge now? What's going to happen to the company?" I ask, concerned.

Lisa pursed her lips. "Andreas's the CEO now. He inherited the entire business, all its funds, employees."

Shane Andreas Riers, Mr. Shane's oldest son, a year older than me. I'd never seen him or met him. From what my father told me, Andreas hated his father for being an absent workaholic, and that was why he refused to be

called Shane, and went by his middle name.

"Andreas? But he's only 26. Can he even run a business that young?"

"He's got a master's degree in Business Administration, graduated at the top of his class, so it's not as if we've got an idiot in charge. But still, I'm pretty worried. He's a nice kid but he's got a disturbing charm, like one of those

psychopaths on Criminal Minds, charismatic but deadly."

I half-smile. "A psychopath, CEO of a weaponry company? That's dangerous."

Linda pursed her lips, anamused. "Andreas's had a lot of trouble lately. About 3 months ago his wife left him, some European supermodel. They were only married for a few months, but I don't know if he's focused enough to take over.

He comes into work looking tired everyday. I feel like he's out partying every night."

The antique grandfather clock in the corner struck 9 o'clock.

Linda stood up. "Well, I'm sorry, I've just been blabbing on to you, I forgot you're here to see your father."

"No, Linda, it's always great talking to you." I said and smiled. We exchanged goodbyes, and I headed to the elevator and selected the up button.

Once inside, I pushed the button for the 22 floor, 3rd from the top. Cheezy elevator music played, and I could see my reflection in the shiny glass walls.

On the 6th floor, the elevator stoped and a young man got on and pressed the button for the top floor.

He looked at me and half smiled. He was tall and tan, lean, and had dark brown hair. His jaw was round and his handsome face was kind.

"Hey."

"Hi." I said.

He was handsome, and there was something very boyish and sweet about him, but his expression was commanding and masculine.

He exuded a certain silent anger that was cold and frightening, but in his brown eyes there was sadness, like the cold anger had trapped him, and he longed to be free.

He looked tired, but his high end suit was ironed and clean.

"You don't work here." He observed. "No," I said. "I'm a pediatrician. I'm visiting my father."

"Oh. Do you visit him a lot?" He inquired amusedly.

I sigh lightly. "No, not especially. He just asked me to come down and see him today. Wanted to talk about something. What about you? What are you doing here?"

"I work here." He replied, straightening the lapels of his jacket. "My dad used to work here too, but I never visited him once."

"Why not?" I asked.

"He was a jerk. The archetypal, neglective, workaholic father."

"Well that's unfortunate." I said.

The young man studied my face for a long moment until I asked,

"Why are you looking at me?"

He chuckled and faced the elevator door. "People tend to look at pretty girls."

I wanted to say something but I didn't know what to say. The elevator doors slid open with a ding on the 22nd floor.

The young man nodded at me.

"It was nice talking to you..."

"Sarah." I said. "Sarah Zhang."

The young man smiled. "Andreas. Andreas Riers."

**_A/N: If you wanna leave a comment or criticism, go ahead, friend! But be nice, and don't be one of those butthurt rude people on the internet, that's just embarrassing on your part. _**


	2. Chapter 2

**_The Arabian Nights 2_**

**_A/N: Hey! Another long author's note that you needn't read if you haven't the desire. I'm a huge slacker and I haven't written in a while, and it's quite likely that I won't post this for a long time. If for some reason you are keeping tabs on this story, then I'm sorry it takes such a long time. And sorry for the "Lisa" VS "Linda" confusion, basically it's "insert-generic-middle-aged-white-woman". Also, I'm aware that this story is quite obscure, and is categorized under a less popular genre of fanfiction, and probably not a lot of people will read it. Oh well! Comment if you wanna comment, let's be friends!_**

"That's Andreas Riers?" I thought to myself. "Lord, he's exactly what Linda said he was like." I remembered his brown eyes, piercing, frightful, and sad as I left the elevator and headed down the long hallway to my father's office. The marble floor shone as usual, and the office doors that lined the white walls had gold plaques that stated the names of the various employees. I passed the maid, Belinda, pushing her cleaning cart down the hallway, as I walked down the corridor, and nodded at her. She was a shy, young, pretty, Portuguese girl who had been working here for a while, and she didn't speak very much English, but she was nice. Today she didn't nod back at me like she usually did. She looked fearful, almost traumatized. I didn't want to overstep social boundaries, so I kept walking until I reached my father's office. His gold plaque read,"Fa Zhang, CFO"

I knocked on the door. "Dad. It's Sarah."

"Come in." A familiar voice croaked.

I entered my father's office. It was the biggest office in the building, after Andreas's. It had white walls and a baby blue carpet, and my dad's desk sat in the center. There was nice furniture placed about the room. It reminded me a lot of the oval office, but more modern. My dad sat on the carpet with documents astray all around him. His tie was loosened, his suit wrinkled, and he held a glass of something he got from the bar in his office. His black eyes were bloodshot, and his black hair was messed up.

"Dad, you look horrible." I said.

"Sarah, I don't know what to do." My father sorted mindlessly through the various papers strewn out before him. His Chinese-accented voice was strained.

"I don't-"

"Dad, what's wrong?"

He took another gulp from his glass and put his hands to his face.

"There is something very bad going on. Very bad. I should call the police. But he'll have my head...Oh."

He looked crazy, like a college student before exams, but 100X worse.

"Dad, what is going on?" I demanded. "Why did you call me down here?"

"He is insane! He hurts people...all those poor girls..." Dad was muttering like a crazy person.

"Who? Dad, who? Just tell me, just tell me what's happening!" I was livid. This was too strange. Something serious had to be going on.

"Andreas, Sarah." My dad says tiredly. "He kills girls. He's killed 10 girls, that I know of."

I paused. Was Dad going crazy? Was he on drugs? Hallucinating? "Dad, what are you saying? Of course he doesn't-"

"He goes out to clubs every night! He brings home a girl! The next morning," Dad put 2 fingers to his temple like a gun. "He kills her."

"Stop kidding around, this isn't funny at all."

"I'M NOT JOKING AROUND, SARAH!" Dad yelled, and after a few deep breaths and another sip of his drink, he calmed down.

"I went to his house early this morning to discuss a new transaction with him, and apparently it was too early." He said slowly."I shouldn't have gone looking for him, I should've just waited in the living room like the butler told me was still scrubbing the blood off the bedroom wall when I walked in. And the plastic bag...Andreas caught me. He's sick, Sarah." Dad loosened his tie some more."He told me what he does. He wasn't even sorry, didn't even flinch."

My heart was pounding. This had to be some kind of a joke. Who does that, kills a girl a night? 10 nights in a row?

"Dad," I said, "We have to call the police, tell someone, we have to do something! He can't get away with this."

"I can't, Sarah," Dad said painedly. "The Riers family has been friends with the NYPD and all the military branches for longer than you've been alive. Nobody would ever believe it. And Andreas has connections everywhere. He told me he'd have his security team's sniper take me out if I ever told anyone, or any of the people who know, like the chief team. He's using us to do his dirty work, the CMO,CSO, chief of staff, and the CFO-me. "

"So why did you tell me?! Dad, no! Why would you tell me if it means you're in danger?!" I began to really panic.

"Shh, Sarah, he won't find out. There are no security cameras in my office, and its too early. None of the executives on this floor have come in yet."

I slumped down on the leather couch behind his desk. "Sarah," He said."I needed to lift the weight. I needed to tell someone." Dad took my hand."And who better to tell than my own daughter."

"Dad, why does he do it? What could possibly be his reason?"

My dad pursed his lips and dropped my hand. "You know his wife, the model? Her name was Tanya." Dad said.

"Was?" I asked.

"Tanya was unfaithful, and Andreas caught them. Tanya and her lover were the first victims." Dad looked at his feet. "Andreas's lawyer and a couple legal people of his made it look like she left him and the lover moved away, but they're actually buried deep somewhere far away. It broke something in his brain. He told me that all women are the same, and he cannot stop killing girls because of what Tanya did."

"So he's ill." I asked quietly.

"He is."

"And girls are going to keep dying?"

"They are." Dad admitted hopelessly,My mind was spinning, and my head hurt from all the information. But I had a very strange, ingenious, and reckless realization at that moment, and I knew that I wasn't going to sit back and do nothing.

"No, they're not."

**_A/N: So yea. This is a thing. Comment if you want to and thanks for your time!_**


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